Los Angeles News Group reporter Bob Strauss will be reviewing movies and making recommendations on how to get the most out of this year’s AFI Fest. Check in daily for updates from the festival.

AFI Fest 2013 begins Nov. 7 in Hollywood, and with it comes a chance to celebrate film in its many shapes and colors. If only that meant happy endings for everyone.

During the eight-day festival, movies from around the world take their place along side studio films, likely Oscar contenders, restored classics and American indies. There will be galas, celebrities and conversations with filmmakers. David O. Russell (the upcoming “American Hustle”) and Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”) will take part in tributes to their films, although they won’t have their own films at the event. Most of all, though, the festival is a chance to discover new artists and their works among the 119 films from 43 countries.

“What we’re really looking to showcase at the end of the year in Los Angeles are the best films of the year,” says AFI Fest director Jacqueline Lyanga, who adds that she sees some 500 movies a year in preparation for the festival. She starts in January at Sundance and hits other festivals like Telluride, Cannes, Berlin and Toronto.

One of the films she saw this summer was “Saving Mr. Banks,” which is now featured at AFI Fest’s opening night gala. It tells the story of author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) who reflects on her difficult childhood while meeting with filmmaker Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) as he tries to secure the rights for the adaptation of her novel, “Mary Poppins.” Hanks and Thompson will be there for the red carpet walk.

If you go to the AFI Fest website to read up on “Mr. Banks” you will notice three movie recommendations at the bottom of the screen, one of which is “Mary Poppins.” It screens at 1 p.m Nov. 9 at the TCL Chinese theater. Coincidently, the beloved film had its debut on Aug. 27, 1964 at the same place, only it was known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre back then. Julie Andrews won an Oscar as the nanny who is “practically perfect.”

Lyanga, notes that there was animation in that film, and the festival will be highlighting a number of animated films, including South Korean animator Yeon Sang-ho’s sophomore feature film, “The Fake.” In Ari Folman’s hybrid, “The Congress,” from Israel, Robin Wright plays an aging actress who licenses her image and eventually enters an animation-only zone. “The Wind Rises” is the latest last film from 72-year Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki.

“It’s really an adult animated film, a really beautiful, with a story and beautifully told. It’s a film not to miss,” says Lyanga.

When asked about other films not to miss, Lyanga points to director Sebastián Lelio’s fourth feature film, “Gloria,” which is described as a an intimate portrait of social life in contemporary Chile as seen through the character study of a unique woman played by Paulina Garcia. A “really spectacular” performance, says Lyanga. Both Lelio and Garcia will be at the festival to represent the film.

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“We want to ensure that there is an enthusiastic audience there to receive them when artists come to introduce their films,” says Lyanga, who then rattles off a half dozen more movies she thinks, shouldn’t be missed.

When asked about the fact that there are only six American independent movies in the lineup, Lyanga says: “Our processes hasn’t changed. We are looking to curate the best films of the year and looking to highlight American independent films.”

One of those films is “We Gotta Get Out of this Place,” directed by Zeke Hawkins and his brother Simon. The film got some terrific reviews at the Toronto Film Festival in September. “A searing sense of place and striking visuals distinguish this Texas-set neo-noir,” wrote the Hollywood Reporter.

Zeke, a graduate of the American Film Institute and Brown University, says it’s special for his first feature to be at the AFI Fest and special, too, because it’s “in Los Angeles where so many of our crew who are AFI alumni live.”

One of the “We Gotta Get Out of this Place” producers, Brian Udovich, also an AFI alum, had seen Zeke’s award-winning thesis film, “Equestrian Sexual Response,” and liked it. The idea for the new film came when Udovich and his producing partner, Justin Duprie, a Texas native, were at a chili festival near Corpus Christi when they visited an enormous cotton gin. They decided it would be a great setting for a film — and inexpensive, too, because Duprie “knew people.”

Screenwriter Dutch Southern then developed a story inspired by hardboiled novelist Jim Thompson about three young people who come into some stolen money and spend it, only to find out it was taken from a crime boss who wants it back.

Besides being excited by the story when he got the offer to direct, Hawkins candidly admits, “What attracted me most about the project was that we were looking at actual money.” So often, the director says, he has meetings about films that have no financing — the bane of independent films.

“There is this whole world of incredibly talented filmmakers, and no one is making any money,” says Hawkins, who was assistant to director Bennett Miller on the acclaimed “Capote.” “Everybody’s doing favors for each other, and everyone’s broke. I don’t know a solution for that. There is this world of super, super big movies where they make money, but I don’t know anybody in that world.”

Before “We Gotta Get Out of this Place,” Hawkins and his brother were making commercials, music videos and films for the Internet. Right now his first feature doesn’t have a distributor, but the filmmaker is hopeful.

“At a certain point, people need to make a living. Everybody thinks we should make very good products for very little money,” he says.

And that’s where AFI Fest plays a vital role.

“The festival is a place for young filmmakers to showcase their work and get publicity and promotion they wouldn’t normally have,” says Lyanga, noting that AFI Fest has had a partnership with the American Film Market for 10 years. “So filmmakers can either look to market their current films or find financing for the next project.”

Hawkins hopes his persistance will pay off for “We Gotta Get Out of this Place,” though he jokes: “As we’re moving back in with our parents, we’re still trying.”